Procedure, Methods and Overview

Due to its interdisciplinary nature, knowledge management is a field that is still far from being consolidated13. The substantial complexity and dynamics of the field have turned theory-based investigations into knowledge management as well as knowledge management systems into challenging enterprises. Recently, both, researchers, with varying backgrounds as described above, and practitioners, especially in knowledge-intensive businesses such as professional services firms, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, chemical, computer and telecommunications companies, have shown considerable interest in the field of KM. Consequently, it seemed appropriate to answer the research questions of this book on the basis of a combined theoretical and empirical investigation of KMS.